After surgery to an injured joint such as the knee, compression and cold are applied to control the swelling and the commonly occurring hemarthrosis that causes pain and delays rehabilitation. Modalities for postoperative cold and compression traditionally have been applied separately—the compression most commonly by an elastic bandage wrapped around the injured body part, and the cold by a superimposed plastic bag filled with ice. While this approach is simple and can be economical, it has its own complications including minimal re-usability of the elastic bandage, short life span until the ice melts and non-uniform application of cold and compression due to gradual warming of the fluid in the vicinity of the patient and irregular distribution of ice in the bag. To address these problems, certain devices such as the Aircast CRYO/CUFF™ brace have been developed that apply compression and cold therapy in a unitary compression system.
Although these systems work quite well for applying compression and cold therapy to the injured body part, they are often not sufficiently rigid to support the limb when fully engaged by the patient. Thus, the patient may have more mobility and limb functionality than desired during recuperation. The patient is also more susceptible to re-injuries caused by joint hyper-extension and unnatural medial (inward) and lateral (outward) movement of the joint.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a bracing system that offers both the therapeutic benefits of cold (or hot) therapy and compression along with bracing support to allow the patient to more naturally use the limb during recuperation.